A HEALTH minister has acknowledged the private sector will probably play little part in providing future NHS services in the North-East.

Lord Howe was in Newcastle yesterday to hear NHS staff give their opinions and ideas on the Government’s NHS reform proposals.

Concern has been expressed by health trade unions about the private sector being given a greater role in the region’s NHS.

But Lord Howe, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Quality, implied fears that reforms would lead to a much greater role for the private sector in the North- East NHS were ill-founded, in an area that had excellent services.

“The anxieties expressed about privatisation are very overplayed. There may be areas where the NHS is so good there is no point in a lot of private providers trying to join the field of play. However, there are other areas of the country where if we want to see standards rise it is in everyone’s interests those with good ideas and innovative ways of doing things should be allowed to compete for services.”

Lord Howe added: “The main principles of the Health Service is that it will be free at the point of use, it should be paid for out of general taxation and any cure is not determined by your ability to pay. These principles will remain.”

The minister, who met Newcastle GPs to discuss the Government’s plans to give family doctors’ control over most of the NHS budget, acknowledged that GPs felt “a mixture of enthusiasm and apprehension”

at the Health White Paper proposals.

But Lord Howe said North- East GPs he had met “can see the advantages”.

He said there had been “tremendous good work” in the North-East NHS and the Government wanted to build on that.

“The last thing we want to do is to see the hard work being done in the last few years being disrupted,” the minister said.

He also said that savings from cuts in the NHS would be ploughed back into frontline services.